ESADE Business School

INTRODUCTION

The school’s Full-Time MBA is designed to give students the most flexible MBA programme options. While all candidates begin the Full-Time MBA at the same time, the programme allows students to complete their MBA experience in 12, 15 or 18 months.

Since there is no single way of enriching management knowledge, ESADE employs a balanced methodology that combines theory with practice, rather than solely focusing on the case method. The ESADE MBA’s methodology varies according to each subject’s objectives and the skills, attitudes and behavioural patterns to be fostered. Utilizing a balanced methodology, the school’s broad approach ensures students develop solid management foundations to prepare them for complex decision-making processes.

International students comprise 94% of the Class of 2018. The ESADE MBA leverages this diversity by placing teamwork at the core of program activities.

ESADE Class Profile

ESADE Placement Report

ESADE Winning Sample Essay - 1

Which aspects have you improved on during your academic and professional career so far? Which tools or values have helped you achieve this?

In 2004, I had to drop out from school as our financial condition did not permit me to study further but I always wanted to study and hence in 2006 once again, I restarted my studies. I knew if I have to take my family out of lifelong financial struggles education was the only way out. This motivated me to put my heart and sole into my studies and helped me excel in my academics and remain in top 10% of the class.

During four years of my college education while excelling at my acads, I led many groups and team within our college. In the final year of my college, I was elected as Head Placement coordinator. Working as a placement coordinator, I worked as a liaising agent between companies and students. These experiences helped me hone my teamwork and leadership skills.

After my college, I joined National Aluminium Company Limited. While working in power plant, I have led my team and given many innovative solutions to our long standing problem such as excess fuel consumption during operations. The solution helped us save € 51,000 approximately. For my work the company awarded me “SARJANA”, an award of excellence.

My innovative solutions gave me the recognition within organization which led to a promotion. After promotion, I got the opportunity to lead an entire section and here I learnt many new aspects of business such as budgeting, contract management, and overall project management. As a section manager, I have led various efforts which directly affected efficiency of our unit. One such problem was the frequent breakdown of 15 km long conveyor belt due to problem in signaling system. To rectify this, I along with my team implemented many strategies, which helped us reduce breakdown by 30%. As recognition of my valuable contributions, once again, I was awarded “SARJANA” for the second time.

Therefore overall I believe the commitment towards my studies and always looking for innovative out of the box solutions have helped me the most to succeed in my career.

How will your background, values and non-work-related activities enhance the experience of other ESADE MBA students and add to the diverse culture we strive for at ESADE? (Note: The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have accomplished) (2000 character)

Coming from lower middle class family of farmers in India and after going through rigor of my early childhood, one thing that really haunts me is the pain and agony of underprivileged children.

With our continuous efforts and hard work, my family was able to come out of adversity and poverty. Now, I have decided to help those who are going through similar difficulty and do not have enough means to come out. With that in my mind, years ago, I started sponsoring a girl child through World Vision India foundation. Through this sponsorship, she started getting nutritious food, healthcare and quality education. In the four year of my sponsorship, I have seen many changes in her. Now her grades in the school have improved and she seems more confident in life.

Seeing changes in her life, I thought to make the impact more profound. 2 years ago, I visited a local orphanage where orphan children under the age of 14 were being taken care of by an NGO. I observed that most of them were malnourished and despite their seemingly happy faces, I felt their unexpressed pain.

So, I decided to help the NGO to provide proper nourishment for the kids. I proposed my intentions to my office team and 25 of them pledged their support to my efforts and we decided to sponsor monthly ration of rice and wheat flour for the orphanage. From that month onwards, we started supplying monthly ration for the orphanage and till today we have donated more than 2 tons of ration to the NGO.

After 2 years, I can happily see the difference in their health and all other spheres of their lives. The most satisfying feeling of all is the respect we get and the happiness we see every month when we go there to donate. I strongly believe, that my commitment tohave a positive and lasting impact on society will enhance the experience of other ESADE students. If admitted, I will look forward to share many similar experiences with my peer group and work together to make this world a better place for everyone.

What are your motivations in pursuing a full-time MBA at this point in your life? Describe your mid-term and long-term visions for your post-MBA career path. What is it about ESADE you think will help you reach your goals? (2000 character including spaces)

Post MBA, I want to switch into an operations consultant role and work for a consulting firm that specializes in operations consulting in energy or industrial sector. In Long-term, I hope to build my own energy focused consulting firm that does not merely recommend solutions but also implement them in a cost-effective manner.

I have more than 4 years of experience in managing operations of a 1200 MW power plant. Over the years, I have learned all the nuances of plant operations. After promotion, I got the opportunity to lead Electronics and Instrumentation section, where I am currently leading a team of 7 people for last 2 years. I believe, this hands-on operational experience at different units of NALCO has provided me a solid foundation of operations experience to transition into consultant’s role in the energy sector.

This 6 years of management and leadership experience have made me realize the critical knowledge gaps, which I believe can be best fulfilled via an MBA. At ESADE, if admitted, I plan to take advantage of its extensive core curriculum and its elective courses such as Action Learning Consulting Project. Its Career Acceleration Program in Consulting is once such program which will help me outshine during case based interview. Through its long exchange program at Darden or Duke, I can further build my knowledge of energy industry and later I can take part in three months long internship program offered through school at various companies.

After going through my research, I came to know that learning at ESADE is offered through many clubs and competition too. I hope to join Consulting, Energy and Environment, Operations, and Net Impact Club. I will also participate in various case competition held throughout the year to build up my profile for consulting roles. Therefore, I firmly believe an MBA education from ESADE coupled with my prior technical experience would be a perfect stepping stone to towards my post MBA goal.

Complete two of the following four questions or statements (1000 characters per response)

a) I am most proud of…

b) People may be surprised to learn that I…

c) What has your biggest challenge been and what did it help you learn about yourself?

d) Which historical figure do you most identify with and why?

a) I am most proud of…

I am most proud of the incidence when I, inspired by Mr. Anna Hazare, along with three friends spearheaded an anti-corruption movement in our township. In 2011, when Mr. Anna Hazare, the face of anti-corruption movement, started a social movement when my country was going through many corruption scandals.

Seeing him fighting for our nation, I along with three friends, decided to start a similar movement in our township. We four friends together marched in our township chanting anti-corruption slogans and encouraged people to join our movement against corruption, a critical issue in our township. At the end, everyone took the pledge to not to indulge in any form of corruption. In this way, we through our small act supported and offered our solidarity to the forerunner of corruption movement Mr. Anna Hazare.

This movement gave me wide recognition within my organization and later I was elected as Joint Secretary of our Officers’ Association, the youngest ever elected in NALCO.

c) What has your biggest challenge been and what did it help you learn about yourself?

For me, the biggest challenge was to overcome poverty and adversity which our entire family were gone through in my early days of life.

I am son of a small business owner, our entire family was dependent on the income form the small grocery store. Driven by my family’s financial circumstance, I started working part-time with my father at an early age of 12. The store was never profitable, and ultimately it was closed 2004.

Once our store was closed, we were literally forced to move out of the city. Seeing our financial situation, I had to quit my education behind, and I started working full time in construction to support my family. Both my Dad and Mom were also working, and all these combined efforts helped us stay afloat and pay for my brother and sister’s education. These were the most difficult days of my life and I learnt how to become resilient and be ready to face difficulty in all walks of life without bogging down.

ESADE Application Essay Tips

Essay 1:

Which aspects have you improved on during your academic and professional career so far? Which tools or values have helped you achieve this?

ESADE provides a “transformative” experience, but to benefit from it fully, students must be open to transforming. This essay provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you recognize areas in which you can improve, and then take action to do so. Among the most important aspects to ESADE are leadership, teamwork, and organizational skills. The second part of the question is asking for applicants to analyze what enabled them to make these improvements: personality traits, introspection, trusted mentors, and even a comprehensive professional evaluation system may be among the tools that applicants have found most useful. Sharing a story or two in this essay that show both the improvement and the tools/values at work will engage the reader and set a tone of interest for your entire application.

Essay 2:

How will your background, values and non work-related activities enhance the experience of other ESADE MBA students and add to the diverse culture we strive for at ESADE? (Note: The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have accomplished)

ESADE has only 170 students in each class, so each of them must be active to create a lively campus. This essay offers applicants an opportunity to demonstrate how they have helped create community in the past – on campus, in professional and social organizations, in their neighborhood, even in their family life. If an example from a professional environment is the one that best illustrates a personal quality, then, yes, feel free to use it.

Essay 3:

What are your motivations in pursuing a full-time MBA at this point in your life? Describe your mid-term and long-term visions for your post-MBA career path. What is it about ESADE you think will help you reach your goals?

This is a standard goals question. Applicants need to demonstrate that their goals are ambitious but fully realizable. Anyone whose goals are not seen as reasonable cannot be accepted because they will graduate unhappy at the discovery of that reality – after losing 12-18 months of their lives and €60,000 of their hard-earned (or borrowed!) money.

Essay 4:

Complete two of the following four questions or statements (1000 characters per response)

a. I am most proud of…b. People may be surprised to learn that I…c. What has your biggest challenge been and what did it help you learn about yourself?d. Which historical figure do you most identify with and why?

All of these essay prompts aim to discover any interesting aspects of your background, both professional and personal. These provide applicants a chance to round out the admissions committee’s understanding of who they are, what obstacles they have faced in their lives, and what they’ve accomplished. These are very brief essays of approximately 150 words each.

Essay 5:

Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. This may include gaps in employment, your undergraduate record, plans to retake the GMAT or any other relevant information.

If you need to explain any of the standard issues – your direct manager doesn’t know you’re applying so you couldn’t ask him to write a recommendation, you completed your coursework in December but did not receive your diploma until the following May, etc. – then this is the place to make those clarifications. If you do not need to use this space for any of those mundane topics, then feel free to fill it with an example of your leadership, maturity, or innovation to provide further evidence of your fit with ESADE.